Question

How are fungi helpful to humans and how are they harmful?

Answer 1

Hint: Fungi are organisms that belong to kingdom fungi, which includes yeasts, mushrooms, etc and they are eukaryotic organisms.

Complete answer:
Fungus can be both useful and harmful to humans. Those effects can be described with the help of the following few points.

Useful effects of fungi
1)There are some species of fungus that can be used as medicines.
2)Fungus can also be used as antibiotics, for example, penicillin, the first-ever penicillin was discovered from a fungus penicillium notatum.
3)Fungus can also be used in the formation of alkaloids, vitamins, and steroids.
4)Fungus can be used in the production of foods like cheese, bread, cakes, etc.

Harmful effects of fungi
1)Some fungus can cause various plant diseases like red rot of sugarcane and powdery mildew in peas, etc.
2)Growth of fungus in food items can spoil the food.
3)Some fungus can cause hallucinations, for example lysergic acid diethylamide is a hallucinogenic drug obtained from fungi

Note: Presence of chitin in the cell wall of fungi is one of the characteristic features of fungi and they are not autotrophic because they cannot photosynthesize and hence they are heterotrophic as they depend on other organisms for their nutrition. Fungi can also act as a decomposer. Some fungi such as some species of mushrooms are edible. Many species relate to the kingdom fungi, approximately 3-4 million species. The kingdom fungi are further classified into a subkingdom that is further divided into 10 phyla.